Vibratory separators are used today to remove solid particulate from fluid that may be passed through the separator. For example, in the oil and gas industry, vibratory separators, which are referred to as shale shakers, are used to remove cuttings and other solid particulate from drilling fluid. Oilfield drilling fluid, often called “mud,” serves multiple purposes in the industry. Among its many functions, the drilling mud acts as a lubricant to cool rotary drill bits and facilitate faster cutting rates. Typically, the mud is mixed at the surface and pumped downhole at high pressure to the drill bit through a bore of the drill string. Once the mud reaches the drill bit, it exits through various nozzles and ports where it lubricates and cools the drill bit. After exiting through the nozzles, the “spent” fluid returns to the surface through an annulus formed between the drill string and the drilled wellbore. Much time and consideration is spent to ensure the mud mixture is optimal. Because the mud evaluation and mixture process is time consuming and expensive, drillers and service companies prefer to reclaim the returned drilling mud and recycle it for continued use.
Drilling mud is used to carry the cuttings away from the drill bit at the bottom of the borehole to the surface. As a drill bit pulverizes or scrapes the rock formation at the bottom of the borehole, small pieces of solid material are left behind. The drilling fluid exiting the nozzles at the bit acts to stir-up and carry the solid particles of rock and formation to the surface within the annulus between the drill string and the borehole. Therefore, the fluid exiting the borehole from the annulus is a slurry of formation cuttings in drilling mud. Before the mud can be recycled and re-pumped down through nozzles of the drill bit, the cutting particulates must be removed.
As such, a vibratory separator is a vibrating sieve-like table upon which returning solids laden drilling fluid is deposited and through which clean drilling fluid emerges. Typically, the vibratory separator is a table with a generally perforated filter screen bottom. Returning drilling fluid is deposited at the feed end of the vibratory separator. As the drilling fluid travels down the length of the vibrating table, the fluid falls through the perforations to a reservoir below, leaving the solid particulate material behind. The vibrating action of the vibratory separator table conveys solid particles left behind to a discharge end of the separator table.
The above described apparatus is illustrative of one type of shaker or vibratory separator known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The use of a shale shaker is particularly important in removing drilling solids from the drilling fluid. However, one or more shakers used to clean the drilling fluid require maintenance and upkeep, such as by inspecting, cleaning, or replacing the screens within the shakers, or by monitoring the shakers to determine if the shakers are operating at an efficient and desired rate. This maintenance of the shakers is time consuming, as an individual must individually monitor and maintain the shakers during operation. Further, when performing maintenance on the shakers, the drilling fluid must be redirected appropriately and the work must be performed in a time efficient manner, such as to prevent any other operations dependent on the shakers from having to delay for additional time more than necessary.